Tea Party Demonstrators Duped (article) by David A. Schwinghammer on AuthorsDen

Ideologues prey on naive protestors. Childish, naive, and irresponsible---words that describe the tax protestors who demonstrated April 15th, 2009. United States citizens pay some of the lowest taxes in the industrialized world, one of the reason for our huge deficit. Politicians are afraid to raise taxes, yet we need them for police protection, firemen, schools, and roads. When Jim Pohlad, son of billionaire Minnesota Twins owner Carl Pohlad, published a full page ad in The Minneapolis Star-Tribune along with 200 other business owners asking to have their taxes increased, conservative governor Tim Pawlenty responded by saying, �I�ll take your check.� 60 percent of the rich pay no taxes, but they don�t seem to mind paying tax lawyers the money they could have contributed to a better life for everyone. Tax protestors who complain that their grandchildren will pay for the deficit are being disingenuous. Where were these people when George W. Bush flushed away four trillion dollars to fight an illegal war and lied about the reason? Obama needs to prime the pump to get the economy rolling again. Some economists argue that he didn�t spend enough stimulus money, pointing to FDR in 1937 who changed course trying to balance his budget, prolonging the Depression. The difference between the Bush administration and Obama�s is that Obama�s deficit spending actually invests in our own country, improving the infrastructure and investing in renewable energy. Without an effective stimulus plan, those same protestors could wind up in soup kitchen lines wondering what hit them. Knowing them, they�d probably find a way to blame it on our �socialist� government. Denmark is a socialist country and according to a recent TV news magazine segment, they�re the happiest people in the world. Their health care and education, including college, cost nothing. Meanwhile we are already seeing results from the pump priming. Wells Fargo recently came in with a three billion dollar profit for the first quarter and Goldman Sachs wasn�t far behind and they�re paying back the TARP money. Bush�s version provided no-bid contracts in Iraq for his vice-president�s former company along with a lack of oversight which led to the disappearance of billions of dollars. Many of the same people who were protesting during the tea parties have also fought reasonable gun laws tooth and nail. Meanwhile fifty-seven people died in one month�s time due to mass murders while gun lovers line up at gun shows buying weapons by the truckload, afraid Obama will reinstate the assault weapon ban, and Mexican drug traffickers import ninety percent of their weapons from the United States to fight their war against the Mexican government. Conservatives argue that these crazy people would get those guns anyway. We now have 280,000,000 guns in this country, almost one for every man, woman, and child. The NRA, the Republican Party and cowardly Democrats afraid to reinstate the assault weapons ban because they might lose votes see the 30,000 people who die as a result of murder, suicide, and accident due to guns as being expendable or, worse yet, collateral damage. The second amendment to the Constitution is ambiguous to say the least. What part of the law says that a gun nut has a right to carry a gun into a hospital? More rightly said, why does a hospital need to post a sign saying guns are not allowed? After the Virginia Tech massacre the conservative solution was to arm the students. Apparently the LSD generation is alive and well. Why do Americans have a love affair with guns? Is it TV and movie shoot �em ups? Are guns misguided symbols of masculinity? Are guns just dangerous toys or is it a matter of paranoia? Gun owners are more likely to shoot their spouses and children, their next-door neighbors or innocent bystanders than they are a burglar. We�re beginning to hear about these mass shootings every day now. How often do you hear about a convenience store clerk holding off a hold-up artist? How about an amendment to the Constitution clarifying the second amendment? It was written in the 18th century. British soldiers no longer break into our houses to search for weapons. We now have policemen, the National Guard, and 9-1-1, and they�re a whole lot better at protecting us than we are. No homeowner needs a 9mm Glock. Another news magazine segment showed that even trained gun owners are cool enough under fire to fight back against a gunman intent on revenge. An intruder is more likely to take your gun away from you and use it on you than you are to ward him off. And if you�re not home, he may steal your weapon and use it in a crime, or, worse yet, your little boy may think it�s a toy and use it on his sister. We had a school shooting here in Minnesota at Rocori High in Cold Spring where a deputy sheriff�s son took his father�s gun to school and murdered two of his classmates. If a deputy sheriff can�t secure his gun, who can? Republicans like to call themselves the law and order party, but they won�t listen to police commissioners and police chiefs begging for better gun laws. Ask the Alabama policeman who lost his wife and child how he feels about gun control, or the families of the three policemen who were ambushed by the guy in the flak jacket. About the dumbest slogan I�ve ever heard is �Guns don�t kill people, people do.� Yeah, right, and hammers don�t build houses, carpenters do, and wrenches don�t fix toilets etc. etc. How about global warming? Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity would rather see New York City under water and our cornfields dry up than admit we have a CO2 problem and that maybe we better start looking for alternative energy sources. I mean, even T. Boone Pickens advocates wind farming these days and he was one of the bankrollers of the Swiftboaters. It�s time that people realize that ideologues may not be the best sources of information. Websters defines Ideologue as an impractical idealist. I remember hearing Tom DeLay describe himself as a proud ideologue. At first I thought he might mean idealist, but he was actually serious. Tax protestors and single issue voters should remember that this particular ideology includes former members of the John Birch Society, Southern racists and the Posse Comitatus. Remember Gordon Kahl? We now have an intelligent---editor of the Harvard law review---well-spoken, compassionate president who is willing to listen to just about everybody, including bull-headed right wing conservatives, unlike the previous occupant who refused to listen to his own terrorism expert when warned about an impending Al Qaeda attack.�
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